Various global or local communications networks (the Internet, the World Wide Web, local area networks and the like) offer a user a vast amount of information. The information includes a multitude of contextual topics, such as but not limited to, news and current affairs, maps, company information, financial information, traffic information, games and entertainment related information. Users use a variety of client devices (desktop, laptop, notebook, smartphone, tablets and the like) to have access to information resources which can include rich content including text, images, audio, video, animation, and other multimedia content from such networks.
Generally speaking, a given user can access an information resource on the communications network through a number of mechanisms. The given user can access a particular information resource directly, either by launching a browser application such as Yandex browser, Windows Explorer, Chrome browser, Safari browser, Mozilla browser, Opera browser and the like and typing an address of the resource (typically an URL or Universal Resource Locator, such as www.webpage.com, corresponding to the network address for the resource) in a browser command interface; or by clicking a hyper-link to a resource in an e-mail or in another displayed resource. Alternatively, the given user may conduct a search using a search engine to locate a resource of interest. The latter is particularly suitable in those circumstances, where the given user knows a topic of interest, but does not know the exact address of the resource they are interested in.
Once a user has begun to view a first resource in a browser application, they can continue to move from resource to resource within the browser, either by clicking on hyperlinks; explicitly typing a new resource address; beginning a new search; or clicking on the browser application “back”, “forward” or “home” buttons. Some browsers can also respond to voice commands enabling a user to provide a voice request which is then converted into either a navigation command or for example, a new search request.
It will be appreciated that when a given user is searching information about any of a company, place, product or media including movies, music or games, they may need to browse through a number of web pages before they arrive at a page of interest.
Modern web search engines have attempted to provide certain tools for the user to assist the user in sieving through the available information to more effectively arrive at a page of interest. For example, a Yandex browser application presents the user with several tools. The Yandex browser presents the user with a refinement tool, which refinement tool presents certain search refinement choices to the user. In for example a search for a game, the Yandex browser application may present the user with refinement choices of “game”, “watch”, “mp2”, “book”, “comics” and the like.
Alternatively or additionally, the Yandex browser application can present the user with a search results page (SERP) with search results ranked in the order of relevancy—from the most relevant web resource being on top, with the remainder of the web resources being responsive to the search query being ordered (or ranked) in the order of diminishing relevancy to the search request.
Additionally, some search engines can provide a snippet of information about a web resource—be it a textual summary or a snippet including an image and other related information to enable the user to determine if the particular web resource presented in the SERP indeed contains information that the given user is searching for. The user may then click the snippet (typically the snippet image) to follow a hyperlink associated with the snippet, whereby the browser application will request and display to the user the resource.
There is a significant body of prior art which attempts to improve a user's access to information as they attempt to locate required resources via a network:
US 2011/0072033 teaches a method of presenting web page suggestions related to (but not included in) search results or recently navigated to pages. These suggestions can be included in a drop-down menu. The suggestions are based on a search query.
US 2013/0159923 teaches a method of providing a search box in the tool bar, with a SERP that covers a first portion of the screen and shows a preview of a selected web page in a second portion of the screen. SERP can be provided in a drop down pane while navigating to sites in order to easily return to a populated SERP.
US 2013/0125047 teaches a method of presenting a browsing pane having search results presented; the browsing pane can overlap with a portion of a results pane.
US 2014/0108968 teaches a method of presenting information in a plurality of tiles (information blocks) that may be of interest to a user within a browser. This information may include websites visited or bookmarked by the user and/or may be related to a search term entered by the user.
In each of these cases, all additional information is based exclusively on a search request.
US 2012/0159294 teaches a method of including a secondary navigation bar, which may contain a drop down pane including information related to services of the web site (for example, shipping information for an online retail company) or notifications tailored to the user. Notifications are included in a pane. The secondary navigation bar is always active, so it is a part of interface of a website.
US 2012/0159294 offers some information related to the content of a page, but it is done only to one particular website. This application is about an e-shop, so for every product page, they offer predetermined information about delivery.